SPLENDID MUSEUMS

MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART – DOHA, QATAR

Established in 2008, it is one of the youngest museums. It houses a

collection of works gathered since the late 1980s, including manuscripts,

textiles and ceramics. It boasts of one of the world’s most complete

collections of Islamic artifacts, with items originating in Spain,

Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, India, and Central Asia.

LOUVRE MUSEUM – PARIS, FRANCE

Located on the right bank of the river Seine, Louvre is the world’s

most visited museum. In 2012, it received almost 10 million visitors

who admired unique exhibits spreading over an area of more than

650,000 square feet. Originally built as a fortress in the late 12th

century, Louvre Museum with its distinctive shape, is one of the

prime landmarks of Paris.

POTALA PALACE – LHASA, TIBET

Built at an altitude of 12,100 feet on the side of Marpo Ri in the centre

of Lhasa Valley, Potala Palace has been the chief residence of the

Dalai Lama but it recently also started to serve as a museum of

Chinese history and culture. The monumental building consists of

thirteen stories, containing over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines

and about 200,000 statues.

BRITISH MUSEUM – LONDON, GREAT BRITAIN

Founded in 1753, the British Museum is dedicated to human history and

culture. With almost 7 million visitors in 2013, it is the second mostly

visited museum in the world, after the French Louvre. Its permanent

collection, numbering some 8 million works, is among the largest and

most comprehensive. It originates from all continents, illustrating and

documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.

EGYPTIAN MUSEUM – CAIRO, EGYPT

Established in 1902, the museum in Cairo is home to an extensive

collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It houses the world’s largest

collection of Pharaonic antiquities, and many treasures of

King Tutankhamen.

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART – NEW YORK CITY,

NEW YORK, USA

Occupying an area of about 2,000,000 square feet, is the largest art

museum in the United States and one of the largest in the world.

Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided

among seventeen curatorial departments.

MUSÉE D'ORSAY – PARIS, FRANCE

Originally built as a railway station, the museum houses the largest

collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the

world, by painters including Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne,

Gauguin and Van Gogh. With over 3 million visitors annually, it is

the tenth most visited museum in the world.

SALVADOR DALI MUSEUM – ST. PETERSBURG,

FLORIDA, USA

As the name suggests, this art museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, is

dedicated to the work of Salvador Dalí. Founded in 1982, it houses the

largest collection of Dalí’s works outside Europe.